A few days ago President Bush said that 527 groups are "bad for the system." But, when he was being helped by similiar groups in his 2000 primary fight against McCain, Bush was all in favor of them, saying, "[T]hat's what freedom of speech is all about. ... People have the right to run ads. They have the right to do what they want to do, under the -- under the First Amendment in America."

There are several other places where Bush made similiar statements in favor of independent groups and individuals participating in the political process via paid advertising. Media Matters has the info at: Media ignores another Bush flip-flop: Bush was for 527s -- before he was against them

...I ain't no millionaire's son, no. - CCR

Former Texas Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes is "very ashamed" that he helped George W. Bush avoid Vietnam by helping to get Bush into the Texas Air National Guard.

"Let's talk a minute about John Kerry and George Bush, and I know them both," said Barnes in the video, which was filmed at a gathering of about 200 Kerry supporters in Austin on May 27. "I got a young man named George W. Bush into the Texas National Guard when I was lieutenant governor, and I'm not necessarily proud of that. But I did it. I got a lot of other people in the National Guard because I thought that was what people should do when you're in office, and you help a lot of rich people."

"And I walked to the Vietnam Memorial the other day," Barnes continued, "and I looked at the names of the people that died in Vietnam, and I became more ashamed of myself than I have ever been, because it was the worst thing I ever did, was help a lot of wealthy supporters and a lot of people who had family names of importance get into the National Guard. And I'm very sorry about that, and I'm very ashamed, and I apologize to you as voters of Texas."

Barnes then condemned the Republican attacks on John Kerry's war service: "And I tell you that for the Republicans to jump on John Kerry and say that he is not a patriot after he went to Vietnam and was shot at and fought for our freedom and came back here and protested against the war, he's a flip-flopper, let me tell you: John Kerry is a 100 times better patriot than George Bush or Dick Cheney."

Barnes made the comments in a series of videotaped interviews released here

( hat tip to Random Thoughts )

Secretary of State Colin Powell on Saturday cancelled a weekend visit to Athens to attend the closing ceremonies of the Olympics. Demonstrators had marched through Athens just hours earlier.

Powell's cancellation was written off as "urgent responsibilities".

Among the protests:

On Friday, riot police used tear gas to disperse hundreds of demonstrators who took part in a protest against the Powell visit. About 1,500 people who took part in the march were prevented from reaching the U.S. Embassy to protest Powell's trip.

"It is an enormous victory of the anti-war movement that managed to cancel the visit of the arch-killer Powell," protest organizer Yiannis Sifahakis told The Associated Press.

Just hours before Powell was to arrive, Greece's Communist Party displayed a large banner at the site of the ancient Acropolis to protest his trip.

"Powell killer go home. Don't forget that civilians are being slaughtered in Najaf and a wall is being built in Palestine," read the banner, which was raised on one of the sides of the Acropolis Hill.

Isn't it great to be the country everybody loves and respects?

(sigh)

Nadia Naffe, former field director in SW Florida for the GOP filed a lawsuit in federal court alledging race discrimination and retribution on the job.

Naffe complains that she was subjected to racially insensitive and stereotypical statements by RPOF (Republican Party of Florida) Executive Director of Party Development Terry Kester. Among Naffe's specific complaints:

-- Instructing Naffe to contact African-American Republican Clubs to discourage their members from attending an NAACP march because "The last thing (the RPOF) want(s) to see is some black guy on television wearing a Republican shirt and responding to the press in an ignorant way."

-- Telling Naffe that she was being given race-matched job assignments because "you understand your people."

Naffe alledges that she went over the head of Kester to RPOF officials who did nothing to address her complaints. So Naffe went to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in March to attempt to get a solution. When Naffe informed her employers that she'd contacted the EEOC she was told, "You don't have the right to an attorney. You don't have the right to speak to the EEOC. If you do that, you will lose your job." by RFOC General Counsel Robert Sechen.

Naffe also alledges that as retaliation, she was fired based on trumped up charges.

Yup...the GOP sure is the big tent party, eh?

Thanks to Value Judgement for the link.

You're almost there, George.

See? I've even spelled it out for your speech writers.

It's pronounced miss-STEAK. It's two whole little syllables...much easier than NOOK-lee-ur.

You know you want to.

Clackamas County Prosecutor Al French has been placed on administrative leave after confessing he'd lied to his boss over an extramarital affair with a colleague.

French also recently confessed that despite signing a sworn affadavit along with other Swift Boat Veterans to the contrary, he'd never actually been an eye witness to any of Kerry's actions in Vietnam.

No word has come out yet from the Clackamas County DA's office as to whether French is under investigation for the affadavit, although Clackamas County DA John Foote has said that French is entitled to have offwork political activites.

Earth to Foote: It's unethical (and probably illegal) for officers of the court in the State of Oregon to sign an affadavit that they know is not truthful.

Either way, French is in deep. This affair business may be a way for Foote to get rid of French without having to use the SBV affadavit to do it.

Conservative columnist/pundit Charley Reese says he's voting for John Kerry.

Reese says he'll have to "swallow a lot of petty policy differences" with Kerry, but he's willing to do it in order to:

get a man in the White House with brains enough not to blow up the world and us with it.

Way to go, Charley!

The Buggles

MoveOnPAC has a series of mini movies coming out over the next 10 weeks. The first one is out. It's by Benny Boom entitled "Everyone".

It's very well done and extremely entertaining (and it has nothing to do with Bush...which is kind of refreshing).

Check it out

Jackson Diehl of the Washington Post has an analysis of the Schlesinger Report on the Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal.

The report directly states that no official policy mandated or allowed the torture to take place and that no official above the rank of colonel deserved prosecution or formal punishment. But in the classic Washington style of twisting, turning and stretching, the report directly implicates Bush, his top aides and senior military advisors.

So while Schlesinger is loathe to hold any of the civilian or brass command responsible in terms of court action or punishment, it's pretty clear that he couldn't put his report together without showing an accounting for how their decisions led to the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, as Diehl notes:

The causal chain is all there: from Bush's February 2002 decision to Rumsfeld's December 2002 authorization of nudity, stress positions and dogs; to the adoption of those methods in Afghanistan and their sanction in Iraq by a commander looking back to Bush's decision; and finally, to their use on detainees by soldiers who reasonably believed they were executing official policy.

As we've seen with pretty much ever foible from the Bush Administration, the buck stops anywhere but Bush's desk. It's no shock that this one doesn't either. That said, Diehl is hinting strongly that these tortures took place not just at Abu Ghraib, but throughout the military prison system.

I've been questioned in the comments section of a different post about how I could possibly think that the US is less secure since we invaded Iraq. The rest of the world is watching what we do and how we handle ourselves right now. Torturing prisoners (many of whom had nothing to do with any terrorist acts and are linked to noone who does) puts us in the position of being the neighborhood bully. Such arrogance and reprehensible behavior completely undermines our moral high ground and gives us no leg to stand on when it's time for us to complain about the treatment of US citizens. Further it gives impetus to those looking for more excuses to hate us and to come after us. Yes I know...some groups don't need an excuse. But many do. This is just another link in their chain.

Imagine my surprise to find a column in World Net Daily that was actually sensible and reasonable (sort of).

Ilana Mercer's takedown of Michele Malkin's book In Defense of Internment: The Case for 'Racial Profiling' in World War II and the War on Terror is a stinging rebuke. (via Atrios who lifted it from TBogg)

Mercer considers herself, "to her (Malkin) right on America's immigration disaster, but I also support rational profiling. And by the latter, I don't mean stripping frail, white old ladies down to their Depends. I'd like to see Malkin's God – government – permit private-property owners to defend their property and clients to the fullest, rather than have to get in line for a state-appointed sky marshal with a Taser gun".

Okay... so she's not a "light in the wildnerness" as my title suggests...but it's fun to read the column. She completely eviscerates Malkin's book on the basis of the Fifth Amendment...a worthy exercise indeed. She also tears into Malkin for her appearance on Hardball where she accuses Kerry of intentional self-inflicted wounds for his first Purple Heart.

This is going to be a major catfight. Malkin is probably sharpening her claws as we pixel. Watching the righties cannabilize each other is good sport.

New stuff in the sidebar:

Today I added a fantastic new site called SKS Owners For Kerry. An SKS is a model or brand of military rifle that I had always thought was of German origin. But, reading the SKS Owners For Kerry site I've learned that it's actually Russian in origin. I must have read something about an East German version of the SKS years ago and just assumed that it was a German brand. These guys remind me of radio talkshow host, Ed Schultz's tagline... "meat eating, gun toting lefty." Speaking of which... I've also added a link to The Ed Schultz Show. I identify with Ed because, like me, he used to be a conservative Republican. Unlike Ed I've remained an Independent since leaving the GOPers. But, I very much enjoy his radio show.

We've also added two new blogs to our blogroll. C101 and tsuredzuregusa, both of which are very well written blogs that Carla and I both enjoy and recommend.

(via tsuredzuregusa)

Conservatives have essentially been in control of all aspects of the federal government for the last four years. They promised us a booming economy. They promised us jobs. They promised us that they'd be good stewards of our enviornment. They told us that they'd be better at handling foreign policy because they're the "grownups".

Yet our nation is less stable, less secure in the world and has exponentially expanded our own poverty:

The US Census Bureau is reporting that the ranks of those living in poverty are swelling for the third straight year. The ranks of the uninsured are swelling at an even higher rate.

Home sales are dipping hard due to higher mortgage rates. Home sales have been the one area of the US economy that's kept us afloat.

Unemployment claims are once again on the rise. Last week's rise is due in some part to Hurricane Charley, according to analysts. But even with Charley, claims rose much higher than expected.

Iraq really is a mess. Tens of thousands are streaming into Najaf, advocating for one side or the other. Despite Ayatollah Sistanti attempting to cool tensions, things are no better than they were three weeks ago. And more are dying. In nearby Kufa, more Shi'ites loyal to Al Sadr have died as they tried to march toward Najaf. Iraqi oil exports have been cut in half due to another sabotage of the pipelines. And the number of US (and other countries) casualties continues to climb.

Our national security has never been more compromised, either. Bush has alienated many of our allies and created a situation where the rest of the world has a high negative opinion of us. Many in conservative circles address this issue by claiming that we don't need anyone else or that it doesn't matter what they think. On the contrary, we need other countries for intelligence, backup and support. Additionally, we don't need to be creating more enemies. We've already seen what happens when groups hate us.

Four more years? Hell no. It will be tough enough to get through the next four months.

Columbia Journalism Review's (CJR) Campaign Desk has a piece today which basically echos my thoughts from yesterday on the media falling down on the job when it comes to reporting stories.(via Atrios)

CJR:
Campaign Desk has written many times about the perils of "he said/she said" journalism, the practice of reporters parroting competing rhetoric instead of measuring it for veracity against known facts. In the wake of the first SBVFT spot early this month, cable news programs for the most part offered viewers two talking heads, one on each side of the issue, to debate the merits of the claims. Verifiable facts were rarely offered to viewers -- despite the fact that military records supporting Kerry's version of events were readily available. Instead of acting as filters for the truth, reporters nodded and attentively transcribed both sides of the story, invariably failing to provide context, background, or any sense of which claims held up and which were misleading.

I consider myself a reasonably bright woman but I'm no journalism expert. CJR is an expert. How is it that someone like myself and a journalism expert can see these real and fundamental problems with the media...but the media doesn't? Or maybe the better question is, do they see it and don't care to fix it because it's not a moneymaker to be a filter for the truth?

As I was surfing around tsuredzuregausa (one of the newer blogs on our blogroll), Shaula Evans wondered on her blog about why there is no Progressive women's blog webring.

So being a woman not to sit on her laurels, I created one.

If you are a woman who writes for a Progressive political blog and you're interested, please drop me an email at Carla@preemptivekarma.com. Or click the "join" link at the Progressive Women's Blog Webring at the bottom.

With the Republican National Convention set to start on Monday, allegations are flying that the Bush Administration completely mishandled problems at Ground Zero, and plans to perpetuate those same problems in the future.

According to a report from the Sierra Club (which followed up the EPA's own report):

-- The Bush administration knew the health risks and ignored its own long-standing body of knowledge about the harmful products of incineration and demolition. It should have issued a health warning immediately on that basis.

-- EPA failed to find toxic hazards because it did not look for them, or did not look for them properly. And EPA failed at least a dozen times to change its safety assurances as new information arose -- even after it became clear that people were getting sick.

-- Many workers at and near Ground Zero did not have proper health and safety protections. And the Bush administration refused to enforce worker safety requirements at Ground Zero.

-- Both EPA and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) assured families they could clean up contaminated dust themselves with wet rags and discouraged them from wearing safety masks.

The report alledges that Bush plans to turn what they did at Ground Zero into standard policy.

The Village Voice is also offering it's take onThe 10 Ways Bush Screwed New York (via Catch.com).

Dirty little secrets
Dirty little lies
We got our dirty little fingers in everybody’s pie
We love to cut you down to size
We love dirty laundry


There's a lot of back and forth going on over whether or not 527 groups should be eliminated:

Mathew at Centerfield has complained loudly that 527s are bad for the political process.

RedState is not surprisingly gleefully omitting the fact that Bush has benefitted from 527s and was actively for them when they helped him win Florida in 2000. Apparently to them it's only bad to these guys when Bush isn't benefitting at the moment.

WorldNetDaily breathlessly reports that the Democratic 527s have vastly outraised and outmobilized their GOP counterparts. (Gee...no wonder Bush is so anxious to get rid of them).

Jesse over at Pandagon slams Bush for initially taking advantage of 527s, signing the campaign finance law and then complaining because he thought he'd banned them.

Ted from Crooked Timber asks why it's suddenly not okay with the Bush campaign for private groups to pool together and raise money for political gain?

And Matthew Yglesias mocks Bush and MClellan for what he sees as the Campaign/Administration giving no thought whatsoever to their stated position before trotting themselves before the cameras to offer it.

I've been considering the thoughts on this issue both from Bush's supporters and his detractors. I think there are some valid concerns about the 527s in terms of the media reporting everything these groups say as the unvarnished truth. I thought it was the media's job to sift through stories and check out allegations before they reported them. Color me naive.

This seems to boil down, however, to the media not doing their job. The 527s aren't necessarily a pox on our political process, especially under a fourth estate willing to step up and monitor them.

Howard Kurtz might actually have the best take on these groups:

I don't agree that all 527s should be condemned. What they're doing is perfectly legal, and an outgrowth of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance legislation. They're also a little less shadowy than they used to be, thanks to disclosure requirements. Why should any group -- environmentalists, unions, corporations, swift boat veterans -- be prevented from buying air time to get their point of view across?

This is a very sensible line of reasoning from my view. But I think more needs to happen. Private groups such as factcheck.org and spinsanity.org provide some oversight of these groups. They tend to be nonpartisan and go out of their way to research and study the ads from 527s. They report if a group is lying or not and support their conclusions with the research they do. You know, kind of like the mainstream media is supposed to do.....

...a little more action, please.

There's several worthwhile reads on the Republicans for Kerry site. But I felt this one stood out a bit.

I realize that there are those out there who will claim this group isn't legit. There will rolling of eyes and gnashing of teeth about how this is just a Democrat front group. Maybe. What they're saying either way is relevant and right on the money.

And excerpt from the cited piece:

Job Creation Planned Results: Bush set a goal of 5.5 million new jobs. 4.1 million created through the economies normal job growth projections, and 1.4 million due to tax cuts.

Job Creation Actual Results: Labor Department's numbers released August 6; show this administration has lost nearly 1.6 million jobs since taking office. 2.7 million family wage earner manufacturing jobs have been lost. The new jobs Bush claims to be adding pay 36% LESS per year than the ones we are losing.

Unemployment Planned Results: The month Bush took office; our unemployment rate was 3.9%. The goal was to better what the Clinton administration had attained.

Unemployment Actual Results: Current unemployment rate is 5.6%. Even before 9/11 payroll numbers showed a drop of nearly 40,000 jobs per month. 8.2 million Americans are unemployed, 38% more than when Bush took office. And that number only includes the recently unemployed. Those that have run out of unemployment benefits are not shown in these numbers. Nearly two million people have dropped out of the labor force and are not even counted anymore as unemployed.

Tax Cuts Planned Results: Tax cuts will increase consumer spending, encourage business owners to invest, thereby creating new jobs and a steep economic upturn.

Tax Cuts Actual Results: The tax cuts did nothing to create jobs. Nearly all economists agree that reducing taxes on dividends and capital gains has very little effect on job growth. Tax breaks for business expenses made no sense at all. Businesses had the funds to invest in new equipment. Credit is readily available at very low interest rates. These business owners didn't need a tax cut they needed people from the lower and middle income brackets to have more spending money so their businesses could SELL more products.

Head over there and check it out.

Republicans for Kerry

via Seeing the Forest

Michael Tomasky has a very excellent summary of the irresponsible tack the media has taken in it's coverage of the various accusations against Kerry.

An excerpt:

So now we're having a debate about whether the man who did the honorable thing may have embellished his record a little (although nothing in the documentary record suggests he did this), while we have two cowards who did everything they could to stay miles away from the place Kerry demanded he be sent. This is the fundamental truth. And while yes, Kerry has made his war service a centerpiece in a way that Bush and Cheney for obvious reasons did not, is it really Kerry who deserves scrutiny for how he behaved in 1968 and 1969?

This notion that "Kerry brought this on himself" for making his service part of his campaign is something I've read in several places. Certainly Kerry's service is scrutinized when this happens. But to claim somehow that it's Kerry's fault because Bush's surrogates are publicly lying about Kerry? And when did outright lying about a man meet the standard of free speech (another saw I've read on some sites)?

There are those who appear to want Bush to win so much that they're willing to suspend common sense in order to bash Kerry and ignore the glaring flaws of their own guy. I'd venture to say that the vast majority of those supporting Bush would need to do that in order to actually vote for him.

Still think playing soldier is all about guts and glory? Think again! Reading this story felt like getting punched in the gut. I don't think I can summon the will to blog on it beyond this. So, I'm just gonna post a link here.

This Is Rumor Control - The Things He Carried: Atrocities, Investigations and the Suicide of Lance Corporal Jeffrey Lucey

Via Norwegianity

This story saddens me beyond my ability to express it. And yet at the same time it makes me angry. Angry that chickenhawks can hide behind their ideological delusions and send our young men and women off to walk thru the valley of the shadow of death, to borrow a phrase from the ancient King David.

Now perhaps more than ever we need a President who has a frickin' idea of what it's like to have to walk thru that valley. Not a coward who hides behind the skirts of the Secret Service and taunts killers who he knows have no way of coming after him.

An August 20th study published in the Journal of Clinical Ethics declares that Oregon's Death With Dignity Law has not increased the practice and in fact may have caused a decline in requests to doctors.

The study, conducted by Oregon Health Sciences University, is the first to examinewho considers the practice as well as those who carry it out. Over the six year period that the law has been in place, 171 Oregonians have chosen to take the lethal prescription and carry out their own end of life decision.

In a highly unexpected twist, the study discovered that roughly 1 in every 1000 deaths in Oregon were a result of doctor assisted suicide. That number is much lower than predicted by both opponents and proponents of the law during it's debate period. It's also much lower than the considered national average. Another study of terminally ill patients in six states where doctor assisted suicide remains illegal found that 1 in every 250 patients deaths happened via doctor assisted suicide.

Other findings reported in the study:

*Patients who consider using the law are remarkably similar to those who actually do: they tend to be younger, white and their income is over $30k per year. But unlike those who actually follow through with it, they tend not to be well educated.

*Oregonians remain very divided on the issue. More than 40% of families reject using the law both for themselves and for those around them.

*Protestants and Roman Catholics are about half as likely, compared with people with no religious affiliation, to favor assisted suicide.

*None of the 62 dying African Americans in the study was reported to have considered assisted suicide. Twenty percent of white patients did.

This law, passed twice by the citizens of Oregon, has been under constant attack by the Bush Administration, specifically Attorney General John Ashcroft. Ashcroft has so far unsuccessfully taken the issue to court. But as long as Ashcroft is AG, the law will be in danger from federal intervention.

This issue is a big loser for Bush. While the law is controversial even in Oregon, Oregonians want the feds to remain out of it.

About 350 Kerry/Edwards yard signs in Pensacola, Florida, a GOP stronghold, have been stolen and defaced lately.

All right, children... Somebody needs a timeout.

Clackamas County Oregon prosecutor Alfred French is being asked by a local veterans group to step down from his job, according to KATU news in Portland.

French signed an affidavit declaring that he knows Kerry is lying about his record in Vietnam. French also appeared on the Swift Boat ad declaring Kerry lied about what happened. French later admitted that he had no firsthand knowledge of Kerry's actions and was relying on stories from friends.

Don Stewart, a veteran, spoke for the veteran's group asking for French's resignation. The group is filing a complaint with the Oregon Bar Association saying that an Oregon prosecutor cannot be trusted if he lies in a sworn affadavit.

According to the KATU report, Oregon rules say that no officer of the court may participate in conduct deemed dishonest, fraudulent, deceitful or that misrepresents.

There's currently no link to the story on the KATU website. I'll post one as soon as I notice one is available.

Update:KGW.com has the story up on their site, but registration is required. This story also omits the discussion on the Oregon Bar and the possibility of French having violated Oregon rules.

Update part deux: You can read about the story and view the news video at Katu.com.

Former Navy SEALer/pro-wrestler/Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura will join founder Paul Rieckhoff at a press conference via phone to launch Operation Truth.

Operation Truth seeks to

educate the American public about the truth of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan from the perspective of the soldiers who have experienced them first-hand. We will provide returning veterans with national, regional, and local podiums from which they will expose the preventable hardships that they endured as a result of failures at the top levels of leadership. We intend to publicize how poorly-planned policies and approaches have manifested themselves as problems on the front lines and back at home. We will act domestically to protect our troops and to aid them in their fight to protect us.

The organization says it considers itself nonpartisan but declares itself at odds with the current administration.

Rieckhoff is an infantry platoon leader in Iraq. The conference will also include Bobby Muller of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation.

The necons are infighting.

Earlier this month, Francis Fukuyama, author of "The End of History" and one of the most influential thinkers associated with the movement, surprised many by delivering a lengthy attack on the neoconservatives' longstanding arguments in support of the war in Iraq, including their confidence in building a democracy there and their assessment of the threat from Islamic radicalism.

In the clubby world of neoconservative intellectuals, many of whom are longtime friends and allies, Mr. Fukuyama's repudiation of the case for war, which appeared in The National Interest, was all the more startling because he presented it as an attack on a recent speech by his friend, the columnist Charles Krauthammer of The Washington Post.

Somebody went after that pugnacious prevaricator of pusillanimous pomposity known as Charles Krauthammer?

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Krauthammer and Fukuyama are considered the "intellectual heavyweights" of neoconservatism...if such a thing can exist.

What I found most gratifying is the fact that Fukuyama echoed many of the criticisms of Iraq that those of us who didn't support the invasion and occupation have said:

"One gets the impression that the Iraq war," Mr. Fukuyama continued, "has been an unqualified success, with all of the assumptions and expectations on which the war had been based vindicated."

Like many other critics of the war, he argued that Mr. Krauthammer and other neoconservatives were overconfident about turning Iraq into a democracy, too quick to dismiss arguments of longtime allies, and too willing to give up the practical advantages of partnership with other nations.

Most of all, though, he argued that Mr. Krauthammer and other supporters of the war mischaracterized Iraq and Islamic radicals as an immediate threat to the existence of the United States, a claim that justified immediate intervention. The Soviet Union arguably threatened the existence of the United States, Mr. Fukuyama argues, but Iraq never did.

This single set of admissions from Fukuyama is stunning in the face of Bush unable to think of a mistake he's made..and Krauthammer continuing his silly defense of Bush's policies in the face of such an obvious mess. It's a definite splinter away from a group that has been traditionally a very tight clique.

States that rely on ATM-like voting machines aren't doing themselves any favors.

The companies that make the machines operate under a shroud of secrecy and refuse to discuss possible shoddy workmanship.

The machine testing companies say they are committed to secrecy in their contracts with the voting machine makers, despite the fact that your tax dollars are what's paying their salaries.

To boil it down, it's none of your business if the voting machines work properly, are tamper proof and can be properly audited.

...why I'm here I can't quite remember...

The first four arraignments for terror suspects held at Guantanamo are scheduled for tomorrow.

Of the four suspects, one was alledgedly a driver for Osama. Another is an Aussie who is an alledged "footsoldier" for Al Qaida. A third is an Al Qaida accountant. The fourth is a poet. None are accused of killing Americans. Each could be sentenced to death and there is no independent appeals process.

What's next? Will we be giving life sentences to Al Qaida's caterer and a firing squad for Osama's manicurist?

... when he's got no domestic agenda to speak of? Attack the other guy, of course. Which is precisely what Bush has been doing.

Under the radar screen the NeoCons are moving forward with their plan to etch their decidedly pro-millionaire taxation scheme in stone. Working stiffs like me will be forced to shoulder an ever greater share of the burden over the short term, while my kids will have to figure out a way to pay the rest.

I realize that everyone is still all breathless over Kerry's Vietnam record and Bush's lack of one...but what the heck is up with Najaf?

Weren't we told earlier in the week that Sadr had told his people to leave and that they'd be laying down their arms?

Instead we have more US soldiers dead and no resolution.

Speaking of Vietnam...

You go out and fight the world,
Beat up boys and beat up girls.
And nothing's gonna change your ways,
You look at us, but we just say:
We're fun, you're not,
We play, we fight,
You're off, we're not,
That chip is all you got!

Interesting thoughts from Paul Rogat Loeb on the politics of bullying:

A former Air Force colonel I know described the administration’s attitude toward dissent as “shut up and color,” as if we were unruly eight-year-olds. Whatever we may think of Bush’s particular policies, the most dangerous thing he’s done is to promote a culture that equates questioning with treason. This threatens the very dialogue that’s at the core of our republic.

Think of the eve of the Iraq war, and the contempt heaped on those generals who dared to suggest that the war might take far more troops and money than the administration was suggesting. Think of the attacks on the reputations and motives of longtime Republicans who’ve recently dared to question, like national security advisor Richard Clarke, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, weapons inspector Scott Ritter, and Bush’s own former Treasury Secretary, Paul O’Neill. Think of the Republican TV ads, the 2000 Georgia Senate race—which paired Democratic Sen. Max Cleland with Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein—asserting that because Cleland opposed President Bush’s Homeland Security bill, he lacked “the courage to lead.”

There's been a lot of discussion especially on blogs but some in the press about the Bush Campaign/Administration's systematic use of bullying and intimidation in their various PR schemes. The author's main idea that this type of thing is threatening to our republic may sound a bit alarmist on it's face but I believe he has a very valid point.

As people are labeled "unpatriotic" or "treasonous" when they offer a dissenting political view it teaches society that it's wrong to speak out (In all fairness, Kerry's wife has referred to Dick Cheney as "unpatriotic" for ducking Vietnam....but that wasn't an attempt to label Cheney for his political views). It's a wearing of the scarlet letter for simply daring to have political disagreements and voicing them. We're becoming what we said we hated...like China or the Soviet Union.

Our founders established the First Amendment for the expressed purpose of making certain political dissent was not only protected, but encouraged. Is there such a fundamental lack of understanding of this issue by the American electorate that they would continue to reward such heinous behavior? Or are so many just lazy or busy so that they don't keep track enough to notice what's going on?

Such labeling erodes the basic civil right of political free speech. As long as this labeling continues to be rewarded with political points, it won't end. Journalists seem to no longer exist and the media appears to be a group of sycophants more interested in preening and power than offering facts. When it's perfectly acceptable to treat people like Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Sean Hannity and Matt Drudge as serious arbiters of political ideas, it's time to stop dead in our tracks and take stock of where we are.

The Washington Post has uncovered yet one more Vietnam veteran who has not been heard from yet and who corraborates John Kerry's (and the official) version of the events for which he was awarded the Bronze Star:

Until now, eyewitness evidence supporting Kerry's version had come only from his own crewmen. But yesterday, The Post independently contacted a participant who has not spoken out so far in favor of either camp who remembers coming under enemy fire. "There was a lot of firing going on, and it came from both sides of the river," said Wayne D. Langhofer, who manned a machine gun aboard PCF-43, the boat that was directly behind Kerry's.

Langhofer said he distinctly remembered the "clack, clack, clack" of enemy AK-47s, as well as muzzle flashes from the riverbanks."

Langhofer was approached by the GOP Swift Boat Veterans for "Truth" group several months ago, but declined their invitation to lie about Kerry.

In a relevant article from the conservative The Weekly Standard there is an open admission that George W. Bush and his "ambiguous military record" is a candidate that "relatively few" Republicans "find personally or politically appealing." Which explains why the intense effort to smear the bonefide war hero, John Kerry and John McCain before him. George W. Bush is a hard sell compared to the 1990's when the Democrats ran a draft-dodger against the youngest pilot in the Pacific WWII Theater, and then later against another war hero, Bob Dole.

Republicans have no such luck this time, and so they scramble to reassure themselves that they nevertheless are doing the right thing, voting against a war hero. The simplest way to do this is to convince themselves that the war hero isn't really a war hero. If sufficient doubt about Kerry's record can be raised, we can vote for Bush without remorse. But the calculations are transparently desperate. Reading some of the anti-Kerry attacks over the last several weeks, you might conclude that this is the new conservative position: A veteran who volunteered for combat duty, spent four months under fire in Vietnam, and then exaggerated a bit so he could go home early is the inferior, morally and otherwise, of a man who had his father pull strings so he wouldn't have to go to Vietnam in the first place.

Needless to say, the proposition will be a hard sell in those dim and tiny reaches of the electorate where voters have yet to make up their minds. Indeed, it's far more likely that moderates and fence-sitters will be disgusted by the lengths to which partisans will go to discredit a rival. But this anti-Kerry campaign is not designed to win undecided votes. It's designed to reassure uneasy minds.

Given how Bush has sought to wrap himself in the Bible, and how many conservative Christian churches and leaders have sought to reinforce that impression... if this isn't lying for Jesus I don't know what is. These people aren't stupid. They know that they're lying. And they know that they're doing it in the name of Jesus. Which brings to mind a Biblical passage warning believers to beware sheeps in wolves clothing.